Wells turbine with booster: Effect of rotational speed ratio on the performance

Wells turbine has long been used as an energy converter for wave energy conversion because of its simple structure. In order to alleviate the stall problem of this turbine, the authors have proposed a Wells turbine with booster for wave energy conversion. This unique power take-off consists of the Wells turbine for main turbine and a impulse turbine for booster. In the present, the wind-tunnel tests are conducted to investigate the turbine characteristics under steady flow conditions and the effect of rotational speed ratio on the turbine performance is estimated by the quasi-steady numerical analysis. As a result, the efficiency of Wells turbine with booster which has small diameter ratio D
_W
/D
_i
depends strongly on the rotational speed ratio N
_i
/N
_W
.